Firstly, I was going to write ‘Happy New Year to you all~!‘ but it’s just so late for me to post this, it’s too silly right? But I do want to squeeze in a cheeky blog post before it’s March atleast, so here it is, on a leap day of all days!

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But seriously, can you believe that it’s almost March…??

Can I ask, how have you been doing so far this year? Have you acted upon your new year’s resolution? (that is, of course, if you’ve made one?)

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My new year’s resolution this year is to get fitter (cliché! I know! Lol…), so I have joined a local fitness club!

I must say, I’m pretty chuffed with myself for actually ‘really’ signing up to it! Y’see, normally I slack on these types of actions until the very decision get dusted under the carpet… (of shame…)

But! But! But! Not in 2016! No, this time I’m doing it, & to prove a point, I have so far been to pilate classes twice a week since the beginning of January already! Yay to me! ^^

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Anyway, as promised in my last post, here’s pictures of the kitchenware I purchased during my Japan trip!

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1. Japanese fish scaler.

The phrase “… the scales won’t fly everywhere!” on the packet was the clincher for me! Try as I may, to my annoyance, the pesky scales ‘ping’ away high, so hopefully with this promising tool those days will be over…?!

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2. Cabbage shredder.

I l.o.v.e eating shredded cabbage! I will happily tuck in to a big mound of it, no problem! I love it even better when it has a guilty squeeze of ‘Kewpie’ mayonnaise on it…, &, &, oh,,,, whilst on the guilt trip, I might as well give in & accompany the cabbage with a calorific deep fried ‘tonkatsu’ (Japanese breaded & fried pork cutlet)… hmm…, writing this paragraph makes my craving go unmanageably wild… (cue the sound of stomach rumble.)

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Anyway, whenever I have tried to cut the shredded cabbage manually with my knife, it is always on the thick side…, but… hopefully no more with this handy gadget! Airily fine shredded-cabbage-heaven is on the horizon…?

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3. Stainless steel water flask.

Lol, this one, I had no intention of purchasing. It was meant to be one of those items that you pick up off the shelf to have a briefest of looks, & then put down, y’know, as you do when browsing a shop. Then…, I made the fateful action of having a peek inside…

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Gahhhhh! Cuuuute… It’s got me~!

I imagined how every sip taken from this bottle will make me smile… like forever… & ever.** – SO it was off to the till with an item I had no intention of buying… I think it was helped by the ‘I’m on holiday, I might not come across this EVER again’ feeling. Do you ever get that? There’s something about being on holiday that makes one’s purse-strings loosen, don’t you think??

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4. Bento-ware

For the past two years I’ve been making packed lunches for my children to take to school – because they are not much of a fan of english school dinners. To make their bento, I have to wake up an hour before everyone else in the house, but I never really find it boring or tiring. I keep my interest up by having inspiring tools. Well that’s the excuse for these purchases anyway! Lol! ^^

So I bought:

– A set of plastic toothpicks in shape of stalks. If you pierce mini-tomatoes on the ends, it’ll look like cherries! Fun! ^^

– Two ‘furoshiki’ style cloth bags for transporting the lunchboxes. You tie the two ends in to a knot to close the bag! Simple & beautiful.

– Seaweed punchers. You can punch out cute facial features from a sheet of ’nori’ seaweed sheet & stick it on to ‘onigiri’ rice balls! My almost-teenage son wouldn’t dare be seen with such cuteness at his secondary school, so I’ll use these only for my seven year old daughter…

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5. Stainless steel lunch box from Seagull

I’ve been lusting after a stainless steel lunch box for a while! Apparently theses are leak-proof. Super cool. ^^

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6. SpreadTHAT Self Melting Butter Knife with serrated edge

Made from thermal conductive titanium, this modern looking knife transmits the warmth of your hands to heat the knife itself! It makes spreading the straight-from-the-fridge cold butter effortless. I’ll enjoy using this! ^^

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7. Traditional “Jyu-bako”

And then, saving the best ’til the very last… – my best friend A surprised me with this beautiful present for Christmas!!! Wow…, I now own MY VERY OWN jyu-bako… I feel so grown up & proper…! ^^ Thank you Mrs.A!

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It is a lacquered three-tier box called a “Jyu-bako”. It is traditionally used as a special food container on New Years Day, or on special occasions during the year, for example Japanese people might use it for ‘ohanami’ = which translates to ‘flower-watching’. Japanese people picnic feast under the cherry blossom tree in Spring.

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Talking of cherry blossoms, just last Saturday, I noticed that there were petals drifting in the air in front of my stall. For the initial second, I thought it was sprinkling snow because it was so c.o.l.d. that day, that it wouldn’t be so surprising that it did! Instead, it was nature’s gentle reminder that Spring is around the corner.

Yoshiko san,
Akenashite omedetou gozaimasu!!!! :) How lovely that you are going on a ohanami on hinamatsuri day! That’s this Thursday!!! Lucky you! Here in uk, it’s sooooo cold still. There is no way I’m going to attempt it here!
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Y’know what, you reminded me that I need to get the hina dolls out of the attic!
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Karashi kewpie, sounds intriguing. I love their every product…! Maybe it’s a good thing that I don’t live in Japan and have access to them, otherwise my salads will be drenched as if like a soup dish!

Yoshiko San! :)
How fabulous that your ohanami was good!! I’m jealous! :) I wish I was there!
Here in London, it doesn’t become picnic weather until something like Late May…!!!! And even then, there’s a high probability that it clouds up and it’s freezing cold! Then again, mind you, I’m not a big fan of hot weather anyway, so I’m not really complaining!
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This year, for the first time, I let the children decorate the hina dolls! Under my strict direction ofcourse! :) It’s so special, those dolls, I made them both wear cloth gloves when handling. – I must say, I love those dolls dearly, they come out so briefly from their box and then back away to storage again for another year!!! :)

Happy New Year! Congrats on the exercise/get fit classes. Bet almost-teen-son would be more interested in the seaweed punchers if he had a sweetheart who thought they were cute ;) The butter knife sounds really cool! The grands have outgrown the urge to use lunch pails as weapons, but the grandson still doesn’t pay enough attention. That lovely steel pail would look like it went through a hail storm within a week!

Hello Jonquil! :) Happy new year to you too! And thank you!!! ;) Our almost teenage son is behaving like a teen already…!!! I think starting to go to secondary school (from last September) has really contributed to his ‘growth spurt’! I might try sneak in a cute rice ball with a face one day…!! By the way, the butter knife, it hasn’t lived up to its promise, I need to hold it in my hand for s long time for my heat to warm up the tip end of the knife… Hm…, maybe I have cold hands!?
Have a lovely weekend!
T xx

It's one of my food-porn books that I take on train journeys instead of a novel. ~ I like that this book is just words, no pictures. Normally I would have said that every cookbook ought to have pictures for ALL the recipes, but, I make this the exception. The recipes read so well, that I can picture the dish being cooked in my mind...